Saturday morning I had great plans to go out for a walk. My husband and I were "camping" in my sister-in-law's back yard with her kids. I got up early, changed my clothes, and set out to go for a walk through her neighborhood. Unfortunately when I went to put my shoes on, I realized they were my husband's shoes (didn't even look like mine, but I grabbed them by mistake when I was packing in a hurry). So, I couldn't go. All I had were sandals, and they were not going to cut it on a real walk.

We did, however, take the sandals to the State Fair. It was fun, I saw my first tractor pull and took some pretty interesting photos. We had a good time even though the "freshly squeezed" lemonade was anything but.

Then I came down with the stomach flu. Not good. Took me a couple days to kick that.

Wednesday is yard work day. I head up to my Grandparent's house and work the night away. This week we cut wood into firewood size. Not too hard of work, but with the sun going down by 8 now, that is all we could do. No walks after dark for me.

Thursday my husband and I went exploring. We have a trail near our house that the city intends to connect to a larger trail in the next few years. We decided to take a tour of where it will go. The trail follows a river, so there are a few areas where bridges have not been made for us yet, but we had a good time. It was a slow walk, but it was fun!

The beginning of this week was rainy. I don't have the proper gear to go out in the rain, and I didn't have the proper enthusiasm to get me on the treadmill, so it was a couple days off. I did use them to clean up my house, which was nice - it has been neglected lately.

Wednesday the sun finally came out. I headed out for a walk right after work. I had the intention of doing 5 miles, I ended up doing 4.5 miles in one hour and then taking the last half mile easy. I am surprised that after only about a week and a half I have lost a lot of what I gained working toward the half marathon. I guess I can't take that long of a break in the future.

But the walk on Wednesday was beautiful. It was raining over the mountains so there was a wonderful rainbow. The leaves are not changing yet, so I still have beautiful green shade along the river. Very nice.

Yesterday my husband and brother came with me. We walked the half mile to the walking trail together, than split up for 45 minutes - since we all have our own pace. I decided to not worry about my pace, but just to walk for 45 minutes. That means that I slowed down, and did about 14 minute miles. So I only got in just over 3 during our time. My hubby jogged, and get in 4. I don't know with my brother, I was just happy he came!

So that is where I am on the walking front. On the weight front I am not sure how I am doing. Today I am at 213.8 - which is .8 higher than when I started, but about 6 pounds less than my high (all in 2 weeks, CRAZY). So I will keep doing what I am doing. I am tracking food - and have been doing good at not cheating for about a week. I don't know if I have really changed my habits, but I am working toward it. So far I am about 4 pounds behind where I wanted to be right now - bummer. But I can see that I am making progress, and that make me excited.

I am finding it a little harder to get out everyday to do exercise now that I don't' have a half marathon looming in my immediate future. I did however set myself some weight loss goals, and it is so much easier to lose weight when I am exercising that I hope that will get me out there. I was able to get out this week a few times, and my shoes took me to some nice places.

Thursday my husband and I decided to go for a hike. We got ready when I got home from work, picked up a sandwich on the way (I know, I am not going to lose weight as long as I stop for food, but I couldn't help it!). We hiked up Waterfall canyon. It is a nice short hike, about 1.5 miles, with some pretty steady elevation gain. We hauled the camera up to the top and tried to get some shots, but the sun was already going down by the time we were up there, and we did a lot of our hike down in the dark. I guess my knees have not fully recovered from my half marathon, because they were so sore by the time we got down.

Friday my husband had agreed to go to dinner with his buddy that was in town visiting. I was dreading this, because I knew we would be headed out to get pizza or something equally healthy, and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I knew I would need some exercise before I headed out, so I stopped by the local park, which has a 1/2 mile track around it and did 2 fast miles (fast for me, which was about 4.5 mph). That gave me a little more leeway with what I could eat at dinner.

Saturday my shoes took me golfing. Now, I have always hated golfing. It is the most stressful sport. Someone is always giving advice on how to do better. All this advice just gets twisted around in my head and soon I am so stressed that I can't even see the ball! But I took it easy on Saturday, relaxing and not keeping score for myself. It was a short course, but my knees were hurting by the end, so we took it easy the rest of the day.

And that is where I went this weekend. Hopefully I can keep it up. So far, I am confused on the weight. I started, two weeks ago at 213. After my trip I was up to 220. Back down to around 214 today, but It has been so up and down that I don't' know what to report. I will give it until Wednesday (my reporting day) and we will see from there.

The alarm went off at 4am and we all got dressed and ready to go. It took a while for all of us to get our stuff together and head out the door. We walked about a mile to get to the starting line or "corrals". There were so many people there it was crazy. Since Val had participated last year, she was in corral C while Dad, Matt and I were in E. There were probably about 2,000 people in each corral and there were A-G. We ended up in the back of our corral, which was nice because we didn't have to http://blog.silive.com/sinotebook/2009/08/large_HALF.jpgpush through people. Matt and my dad headed off running and I walked along. Eventually I caught up with Matt when he stopped to take a walking break and we stuck together for a while. I had this big smile on my face as we weaved through DCA and over to Disneyland. There were a few narrow places that slowed everyone down, but not too badly. There were Disney characters and floats from the parade. Lots of fun.

We went out an exit behind Splash Mountain and headed into backstage Disney. We went past the horse stables and a few other places and then out onto the open road. On the road we were greeted by school bands and cheerleaders, as well as some Spanish and Hawaiian dancers. Some of the areas out here got a little boring and I kind of wished I had my ipod. I was totally loving the low altitude and the crazy amounts of oxygen they have down there.

One of the highlights was running through Angel Stadium. We ran in and were greeted by a bunch of cheering boy and girl scouts. We were on the big screen and I know I was happy that a lot of the scouts were squirting the runners with water and misters. That felt nice.

It was about this time (mile 10 - 11 ) that the sun burned through the marine layer and it started to get hot! I must have started to look like I was too hot because more and more cheerleaders were reading my name off my bib and shouting encouragement to me. We came around the corner and back into DCA. More characters and cast members were there to give some last minute encouragement. I tried to pick up the pace a little here, but I was still walking. It was only in the last 100 yards or so when I was in view of the finish line that I ran across the finish. I was done! I finished my first half marathon.!http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Yb9g9Wigkn0/Sqp1225hFGI/AAAAAAAAAdw/cPxk_FZqVE0/s400/090906VWAMAftrRun2%5B1%5D.JPG!

On Sunday September 6th I participated in, and completed my first half marathon.

I will admit when I signed up for the half marathon I imagined that the training would have me in such wonderful shape by the day of the race. It is true that I am probably in better health because of the training, but I did not lose one pound in all the training. I understand that this means that I just ate too much. Now I am a little worried because I am not training as hard, and I don't know if I can do that much better at eating less!

But back to the half marathon, it was so much fun! I walked the first few miles with my husband. We walked through Disneyland Park. There were people out on the roads cheering and Disney characters and cast members in the park to cheer us on. It was great. We went out and around the city of Anaheim. I could tell the beginning of the race was frustrating for a lot of the more serious runners because they had to navigate some pretty narrow areas and push through crowds of slower joggers and walkers (like me!)

The race went all over, including a chance to run through Angel stadium! The stadium was full of cheering fans (mostly boy and girl scouts) and everyone got to be on the big screen. Fun!

I finished in 3 hours, though my garmin had me finishing 3 minutes before I hit the finish line. Guess I went back and forth a lot J

I finished at about 9,000 out of the 11,500 people that finished. But for it being my first half marathon, and for my being a walker, I think that was pretty good. I know I can do better, and I am considering signing up for it again next year!

I am at a loss. Really - I am. I have tried and tried and tried, but I have been gaining weight like crazy since I got married. When I met my husband about 3 1/2 years ago I was at my lowest weight. I weighed a wonderful, awesome, 165. It was beautiful. I bought all new clothes and I looked good. A year and a half later when we got married I had put on about 10 pounds (all that darn eating out on dates). But then we got married and WHAMMO! 40 pounds!

It happened very slowly, almost too slowly to have freaked me out. I gained a few on our honeymoon cruise. Then we moved and weeks of eating out added some more. I got a new job, with new stress and a candy machine. We moved again, and went on another cruise. Slowly but surely the pounds added up, and even when I became aware and wanted to begin doing something about it they still added on.

The sad thing is that I am in rather good shape otherwise. I will be participating in my first half marathon on Sunday, and I am totally ready. I will be walking it since I have bad knees and running hurts like mad, but I will finish the 13.1 miles and not be the last to cross the finish line. So, if I can do that why am I still on the top end of the Overweight range of BMI. What do I need to change?

I asked myself that and decided the answer is that I just need to change everything! I have been setting too small of goals for myself, and letting myself get away with too many cheating days and too many excuses.

So here I go. The goal - lose 25 pounds before Christmas! That gives me three months, which is still a very realistic pound a week, but I am really going to push it. If I lose 25 pounds that puts me back in the high range of normal (instead of overweight). Here is my plan to do this.

1. Exercise - I want to do at least 4 hours a week of dedicated exercise. I won't count cleaning the house or gardening (unless it is REALLY labor intensive) as exercise. This means out walking, on the elliptical, or weights. Something real.

2. Snacks - I will have planned snacks. One of my biggest problems is running to the candy machine. I hope to have planned out snacks that are good for me and small so that I don't have to waste the calories (and money!) on the candy machine.

3. Change meal habits - I think one of the things that helped me back when I lost weight before was that I didn't eat a big dinner. Since I got married I felt it was my duty to cook a good dinner for us. I think this has led to a calorie overload in the evening. Hopefully I can get husband on board for this.

4. Track food and exercise - I have done this before, with varying degrees of success. Hopefully if I report on my progress here I will do better at keeping track and being honest about it.

5. Emotional eating - I need to find something else to do instead of eat when I get frustrated or sad or angry. I run to food, because it makes me feel good and I like it. But I need something else. I don't know what this will be (suggestions?) but I know it is important to find something.

6. Have fun, this can be fun. I will find a fun way to enjoy exercise and enjoy how I feel and even find healthy foods that I enjoy. This isn't supposed to be torture, this is supposed to be good.

So here I go! I am headed out of town this weekend, where I will do my best to be good (except the brownie funnel cake I get when I complete the half marathon). There will be a weigh-in when I get back and it will start!

Please leave any thought and encouragement you would like. Tips and tricks will be really helpful.

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